There was a slight ray of hope for reputable breeders in Ireland last week, as Minister for the Environment, Green Party leader and Dublin based member of the Irish Parliament, John Gormley told fellow TD’s of his Fianna Fail party coalition that there was scope for some changes in the recently published Dog Breeding Establishments Bill 2009.

Both the Irish Kennel Club and reputable breeder / exhibitors were shocked to see the details of the bill, which will see major financial outlay for any breeder with more than six bitches that are capable of being bred from. Included in the bill is a licence fee of 3,000euros for ‘establishments’ with two hundred breeding bitches and a further charge of 1,600euros for every extra one hundred breeding females.

Minister Gormley was invited to address the Fianna Fail parliamentary party last week after members of the senior coalition party expressed their unease with the proposals. He told the members at the weekly meeting that while some aspects of the bill could not be reversed or changed, there were other areas which could be ‘tweaked’. Members of the party had raised the concerns that legitimate breeders could be unfairly penalised with the introduction of the new legislation.

Consistent

The Minister said that aspects of the inspection regime were open to review to allow a ‘bedding in’ period for small breeders and the new regulations could be phased in, but that in the interests of consistency, no one could be exempt from the legislation.

All this really is cold comfort, however, to breed enthusiasts and reputable breeders who have seen a concerted campaign in the Irish media from large industrial scale breeders, who have openly spoken of the nature of their commercial business interest and who have managed to acquire serious air time on both environmental programming and even on the main national news.
There is no doubt that the lobbying process will become very important in the short term if there is to be any hope of changes to the legislation that will bring any recognition of the breed enthusiasts involved in legitimate breeding. Unofficially it has been suggested that it is time for all breed enthusiasts to contact their local TD’s (members of the Irish Parliament) to voice their concerns regarding the effect of this legislation on them and the breeds, while the large scale profitable outfits are well positioned to absorb the costs.

There has been much talk recently from political commentators of the role of the Green Party in the government coalition, with the Minister having to defend recent environmental bills which have come in for serious examination, while the party also had to defend itself after a high profile resignation by Senator Deirdre De Burca who said she had lost all confidence in the party leadership.

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